Mechanical cutters have been used heretofore for a large number of industrial processes, including removal of wool from fells, but a fibre of wool is stiff and strong, and as a result, wool removal with mechanical cutting blades results in a need for frequent sharpening of the blades. Furthermore, there is considerable wastage due to the amount of wool left on a skin.
This difficulty has been recognised, and wool removal is sometimes effected by a chemical process, which is both expensive and unsavoury.
The main object of this invention therefore is to provide a process which can be used for example for removal of wool from fells, but which can also be used in other instances wherein cutting can be effected by heat.
In this invention use is made of a laser for severing fibre from a hide, or wool from a woolly skin (fell).
If a laser beam of 15 mm diameter is focused with a lens or mirror having a focal length of about 200 mm, its effective focal depth will be about 7 mm, and if the laser energy is used to sever wool from a fell by traversing the laser scans across the fell as the fell moves forwardly, a depth of cut (focus) of 7 mm will be achieved in each swath. Thus if a fell 1 meter in length, requires to be cut in 15 seconds, the rate of cutting will be 10 swaths or scans per second. If the traverse is 1 meter, this is at least inconvenient to achieve mechanically.